dancers, etc. "Alexei began to substitute
all the principals by ordinary artists."
Tsiskaridze is probably not represen-
tative of the whole upper tier of the Bol-
shoi; he may just be the most outspoken.
But he delineates what seem to have been
the principals' basic grievances. Because
Ratmansky was not a highly accom-
plished classical dancer (neither, of
course, were Marius Petipa or Lev Iva-
nov, the creators of the Russian imperial
style; or Grigorovich, the founder of the
modem Russian style), he had no right to
correct classical dancers. And, when they
brushed aside his instructions, he, in re-
venge, replaced them. Or, as Ratmansky
would tell it: in order to cast the compa-
nys new ballets with people who actu-
ally wanted to do them, and would try to
learn the necessary style, he had to tap
young dancers, people who, in T siskarid-
ze's view, should have been waiting their
turn. Under Ratmansky, a pair of sensa-
tional débutants, Natalia Osipova and
Ivan Vasiliev, came up, both starting
with him at age seventeen. (Osipova,
now twenty-five, had a triumph as a
guest artist at A.B.T.last summer and is
back at the company now, presumably
at her old boss's behest.) A number of
extremely talented soloists also came
forward. The thrill of the Bolshoi's most
recent New York season-led by Rat-
mansky, in 200S-was not the principals
but the second tier.
The complaints, the dirty looks in the
hallway, multiplied. Russian dancers,
especially the women, are assigned to
coaches, with whom they work for years
and develop very close relationships.
Under Ratmansky, the coaches began to
protest that their protégés were being de-
based by the new ballets-indeed, that
they were being endangered physically.
Keith Roberts, the ballet master as-
signed by T wyla Tharp to set "In the
Upper Room" on the Bolshoi, remembers
watching Osipova weep as her coach
stood over her, urging her to pull out of
that ballet: her feet would be damaged,
not to speak of her reputation. Osipova
wept some more. Then she danced "In
the Upper Room" and gave an electric
performance. She won a prize for it.
The abuse let up a bit after the summer
of2007, when the company had a clam-
orously successful season in London. Still,
the stars were not the Old Guard but
Osipova and Vasiliev. Furthermore, Rat-
40 THE NEW YORKER, JUNE 27,2011
WEATHER REPORT
The vultures of this landscape came to call
this morning-found a bare-limbed tree outside
my kitchen window, setded in & held
my gaze, big tar blobs against a milky sky:
We understand you, their presence informed me,
And I you, I told them in silence.
Right now
this day can't make up its mind-sun's half out
but rain's in those clouds. Ifit's that cold wind-
driven stuff that swats your eyes like a drink
full of crushed ice thrown in your face, I'll stay
indoors, count my failures & petty crimes,
loathe my life, and completely understand
why friends and loved ones keep their distance.
The barometer yo-yos my mental state-
one day I'm a happy old dude, kitchen
dancer, car-driving harmonizer, hilltop
walker delighted by the world.
Next day
it's the big not, the mega-never. And where
are you breeze-blown death birds now that I need you?
This mean rain's rotting the starch right out of me.
Come down from your perch, my beauties, I'm
opening doors and windows, I'm looking for snacks
in the back of the fridge. Here-try roosting
on this chair back. Please just sit with me
around my table. I'll hold up both ends
of our conversation. It's like forever
I've wanted to talk to you. Here-let me
turn off these lights-I know you like the dark.
mansky cast a guest artist, the shot-from-
guns Carlos Acosta, as the lead in Grigo-
. h ' " s " " Th d 1 f
roVlC s partacus. at cause a ot 0
talkings," Ratmansky says. No doubt!
"Spartacus" is the Bolshoi's most sacred
ballet. To see it danced by an outsider-
especially an Mro-Cuban-was surely a
great surprise.
Finally, a coup de grâce, the reviewers
in London remarked again and again on
how much better the company looked
since Ratmansky had taken over. The
revelation of the season, Jane Perlez wrote
in the London Times, was not anyone
dancer or ballet but "the overall look,
speed, and spirit of this revitalized com-
pany under Alexei Ratmansky."
He likes to think that he was philo-
sophical about these troubles. There are
two hundred and twenty dancers in the
Bolshoi, he says, and "all of them have
-David Huddle
their own opinions." His wife, though,
remembers phone calls in the night,
threats. Eventually, Ratmansky, too, was
worn down. He had galvanized the
young dancers and woken up some of the
older ones. He had introduced twenty-
four new ballets into the Bolshoi reper-
tory. The directorate wanted to renew his
contract, but he was through. He once
again turned his face to the West. He
began talking to New York City Ballet,
then to A.B.T., about a staff position.
His switch from N.Y.C.B. to A.B.T.
is a story that we probably won't know the
particulars of until somebody dies. Rat-
mansky has explained it with charity to all.
He wanted to go on freelancing, he said.
Indeed, he had contracts extending into
2010. Peter Martins, the artistic director
of City Ballet, preferred that his resident
choreographer stay closer to home. But